Ah, Patch. Employing plucky local reporters and citizen journalists who know that it's completely unimportant in an article like this to explain little details like when the car was rented and how long overdue it was. The state of local news is wonderful, folks. AOL is looking out for us all.

Ah, Patch. Employing plucky local reporters and citizen journalists who know that it's completely unimportant in an article like this to explain little details like when the car was rented and how long overdue it was. The state of local news is wonderful, folks. AOL is looking out for us all.

Pocket Ninja:Ah, Patch. Employing plucky local reporters and citizen journalists who know that it's completely unimportant in an article like this to explain little details like when the car was rented and how long overdue it was. The state of local news is wonderful, folks. AOL is looking out for us all.

FTA: "During a post-arrest search of Ms. Green's possessions, an officer located 13 Social Security cards, 13 Medicaid cards and other cards, several of which did not have the name of either Dayvon or Valerie Green.

Amos Quito:FTA: "During a post-arrest search of Ms. Green's possessions, an officer located 13 Social Security cards, 13 Medicaid cards and other cards, several of which did not have the name of either Dayvon or Valerie Green.

It also depends on state law. Many moons ago I used to work for a car rental company (same company as in the article it turns out) and up here failing to return a rental car is considered to be a "Breach of Contract" - a civil issue. Cops absolutely will NOT get involved in any way.

We used to call the cab companies and offer a $100.00 cash reward for information leading to us getting our car back. It worked amazingly well.

Amos Quito:FTA: "During a post-arrest search of Ms. Green's possessions, an officer located 13 Social Security cards, 13 Medicaid cards and other cards, several of which did not have the name of either Dayvon or Valerie Green.

Pocket Ninja:Ah, Patch. Employing plucky local reporters and citizen journalists who know that it's completely unimportant in an article like this to explain little details like when the car was rented and how long overdue it was. The state of local news is wonderful, folks. AOL is looking out for us all.

Amos Quito:FTA: "During a post-arrest search of Ms. Green's possessions, an officer located 13 Social Security cards, 13 Medicaid cards and other cards, several of which did not have the name of either Dayvon or Valerie Green.

RanDomino:At the time of the traffic stop, Valerie Green's 11-month-old child was in the vehicle. The child was later released to Green's sister.

Doesn't this imply that the police forcibly separated an infant from its mother?

Seems fair for a dispute of a couple hundred dollars.

Since the entire article was about as informative as it could be (having obviously been written by a four year old), perhaps we should have more info before jumping to conclusions regarding who did what etc..

Skyd1v:It also depends on state law. Many moons ago I used to work for a car rental company (same company as in the article it turns out) and up here failing to return a rental car is considered to be a "Breach of Contract" - a civil issue. Cops absolutely will NOT get involved in any way.

We used to call the cab companies and offer a $100.00 cash reward for information leading to us getting our car back. It worked amazingly well.

So did this happen if it was a day late or would it have to be several days late before you'd start searching? Would you try to call the person first? I'd imagine there are frequent cases of "Oh yea, sorry, can we extend the contract by a few days?" Or they pretty much all attempted thefts?

I'm not sure of the current laws in Georgia, but back 17 years ago when I spent a summer cleaning and inventorying "recovered vehicles" they had to wait 48 hours after the end of the contract before they could report a car stolen.

/Once had a minivan returned with 12 bullet holes but thankfully no blood.

When I was a younger and my personal car was a bucket, there was nothing harder than returning a rental car. I'd get used to riding comfortably and without worrying about whether your driving was damaging the car. Once, when I was getting my car repaired after an accident, I drove around in the rental for a month after the car was fixed. I rented a new Dodge Intrepid (it was really nice at the time). Keeping the car for so long was dumb as shiat and it cost me an arm, but damned if I wasn't all up and down the east coast. I had a ball. And no, I didn't keep it and go missing. I just kept renewing the contract when it was time to take it back.

jayphat:Amos Quito: FTA: "During a post-arrest search of Ms. Green's possessions, an officer located 13 Social Security cards, 13 Medicaid cards and other cards, several of which did not have the name of either Dayvon or Valerie Green.

Pocket Ninja:Ah, Patch. Employing plucky local reporters and citizen journalists who know that it's completely unimportant in an article like this to explain little details like when the car was rented and how long overdue it was. The state of local news is wonderful, folks. AOL is looking out for us all.

They did see fit to give us a picture of what a police car might look like.

Pocket Ninja:Ah, Patch. Employing plucky local reporters and citizen journalists who know that it's completely unimportant in an article like this to explain little details like when the car was rented and how long overdue it was. The state of local news is wonderful, folks. AOL is looking out for us all.

um

The police report did not indicate when the vehicle had been rented or when it was supposed to have been returned.

Amos Quito:FTA: "During a post-arrest search of Ms. Green's possessions, an officer located 13 Social Security cards, 13 Medicaid cards and other cards, several of which did not have the name of either Dayvon or Valerie Green.

MindStalker:Skyd1v: It also depends on state law. Many moons ago I used to work for a car rental company (same company as in the article it turns out) and up here failing to return a rental car is considered to be a "Breach of Contract" - a civil issue. Cops absolutely will NOT get involved in any way.

We used to call the cab companies and offer a $100.00 cash reward for information leading to us getting our car back. It worked amazingly well.

So did this happen if it was a day late or would it have to be several days late before you'd start searching? Would you try to call the person first? I'd imagine there are frequent cases of "Oh yea, sorry, can we extend the contract by a few days?" Or they pretty much all attempted thefts?

I worked in the body shop, not front desk, so my only involvement was getting the 2am wake up call, go to the shop to get the $100 out of petty cash, and take the wrecker out to hook up the car.

But my understanding from talking to the desk folks was they would give it a week (or more, if the credit card still had available funds on it) and would exhaust any points of contact they had on file first.

Things may be different now. I left there in mid '93 and have only been on the "renter" side of the counter since.

Cold_Sassy:jayphat: Amos Quito: FTA: "During a post-arrest search of Ms. Green's possessions, an officer located 13 Social Security cards, 13 Medicaid cards and other cards, several of which did not have the name of either Dayvon or Valerie Green.

I used to work for Hertz Rent-A-Car a little over a year ago. The number of times that we had to demand cars back from customers was ridiculous. The worst was when their cars were in the shop and they were arguing with the shop or the insurance company. They'd get mad when he hit their credit cards for authorization of rental charges after keeping it a week past when the insurance company said they'd stop paying.

Skyd1v:It also depends on state law. Many moons ago I used to work for a car rental company (same company as in the article it turns out) and up here failing to return a rental car is considered to be a "Breach of Contract" - a civil issue. Cops absolutely will NOT get involved in any way.

We used to call the cab companies and offer a $100.00 cash reward for information leading to us getting our car back. It worked amazingly well.

That is exactly how it SHOULD be. The car is NOT stolen, the rental company knows who has it and gave them permission to drive it. Keeping it longer is a breach of that contract, but is not theft. Take it to civil court, get an order to reacquire possession of the car, then you can use the cops to get the car back - but NOT charge anyone with a crime.

I often keep a car an extra day or two if my trip is prolonged. The big rental agencies' philosophy is "if it's 24-36 hours of extension, don't even bother calling us. But if it's longer, call the toll-free number and extend your contract"

Smaller agencies, like Rent-a-Wreck, will call your cell if you are over a day late. I guess they don't have the inventory or flexibility to deal with late returns.

DROxINxTHExWIND:When I was a younger and my personal car was a bucket, there was nothing harder than returning a rental car. I'd get used to riding comfortably and without worrying about whether your driving was damaging the car. Once, when I was getting my car repaired after an accident, I drove around in the rental for a month after the car was fixed. I rented a new Dodge Intrepid (it was really nice at the time). Keeping the car for so long was dumb as shiat and it cost me an arm, but damned if I wasn't all up and down the east coast. I had a ball. And no, I didn't keep it and go missing. I just kept renewing the contract when it was time to take it back.

DarkVader:That is exactly how it SHOULD be. The car is NOT stolen, the rental company knows who has it and gave them permission to drive it. Keeping it longer is a breach of that contract, but is not theft.

Actually, it is.

When you rent a car, you rent it for a given time period, not indefinitely. If you want to keep it longer, you can extend that contract, but you need to talk to the company you rented it from. You also need to keep paying the rental charges on a fairly regular basis. I'm betting the people in the article used a credit card that ran out of money.

If you just rent the car and disappear, the company can't charge you for it, and don't answer phone calls, you stole it.

Skyd1v:MindStalker: Skyd1v: It also depends on state law. Many moons ago I used to work for a car rental company (same company as in the article it turns out) and up here failing to return a rental car is considered to be a "Breach of Contract" - a civil issue. Cops absolutely will NOT get involved in any way.

We used to call the cab companies and offer a $100.00 cash reward for information leading to us getting our car back. It worked amazingly well.

So did this happen if it was a day late or would it have to be several days late before you'd start searching? Would you try to call the person first? I'd imagine there are frequent cases of "Oh yea, sorry, can we extend the contract by a few days?" Or they pretty much all attempted thefts?

I worked in the body shop, not front desk, so my only involvement was getting the 2am wake up call, go to the shop to get the $100 out of petty cash, and take the wrecker out to hook up the car.

But my understanding from talking to the desk folks was they would give it a week (or more, if the credit card still had available funds on it) and would exhaust any points of contact they had on file first.

Things may be different now. I left there in mid '93 and have only been on the "renter" side of the counter since.

So, if you are rich (and white probably wouldn't hurt) then you can just keep it till you feel otherwise.

I've kept rentals out 2-3 days past the return date, then called up and said "Sorry I am late, I need to extend for a week" and they've always been perfectly happy, never complaining about my lateness.

My guess is she was more than 7 days late in returning, with no contact.

All due respect, a lot of these companies only take YOUR end of the contract seriously. I had one try and tack on a week's worth of late fees. I had to practically get a letter from my CO saying that I was not only over a thousand miles away from the city in question when the car was supposedly returned by me, but had been at work by then for several days.

danielscissorhands:Pocket Ninja: Ah, Patch. Employing plucky local reporters and citizen journalists who know that it's completely unimportant in an article like this to explain little details like when the car was rented and how long overdue it was. The state of local news is wonderful, folks. AOL is looking out for us all.